Minwoo Ryoo

Professor Robert Arnold

INTL 3111 – 001

19 September 2018

Anti-colonialists and Colonialists

The planet earth has been home to countless number of cultures around the world for a

long time. Different cultures often had a conflict each other just for being different. “The Guest”

focuses on how cultural differences between two main characters, Daru and Baldduci, led to a

conflict. While Daru represents humanity and kindness of anti-colonialists, Baldduci represents

brutality and primitive view of typical European colonialist against African and the Middle

Eastern culture.

The Guest follows the story of Algerian-born French solider named Daru. In the story he

is based in rural Alegria at the time Algeria was colony of France. Daru volunteered to be

stationed in small town because he wanted some silence after war and enjoyed the nature, which

can be seen as unusual. History tells us that typical Europeans’ viewed Africa and the Middle

East as “primitive” in late 19th and early 20th centuries (George). However, as a European born in

Africa, Daru was able to have a view of Africans equal to everyone else. Daru shows kindness to

“Arab” who was arrested for murder. However, author offers a possibility of more story of Arab

killing his cousin by telling readers town is beginning to “stir”, which can be the reason why

Daru showed his kindness to Arab.

In contrast, Baldduci is a French officer who represents the brutal rule of Europeans in

Africa. Baldduci hurries to go back to town to help other officers to keep the town under control.
He follows the order of taking Arab to Daru and says he is insulted because Daru did not listen to

him. This may be not enough to define Baldduci as colonialist, but it is enough to say that he

represents how typical European rule was like in Africa. In addition, although not mentioned in

the story, referring the Arab as “Arab” instead of giving readers his name also shows what author

thought of the Arabs. Calling someone by their name shows the respect and politeness, and by

referring the local as “Arab”, author’s negative thoughts about Arabs are revealed in the story.

It is possible that the author had a story that are not that changes the characteristics or

other readers have a different view. However, “The Guest” clearly shows what many Europeans

thought about countries they had control.

 Works Cited

George, Katherine. “The Civilized West Looks at Primitive Africa: 1400-1800 a Study in

Ethnocentrism.” Isis, vol. 49, no. 1, Mar. 1958, pp. 62–72., doi:10.1086/348640.